Frosty and Applebloom were walking through the apple orchard, looking into the trees in search for dead branches that needed to be removed. Applejack had given them this assignment after they had returned to the farmhouse the evening prior… together with a guardspony.

Turns out that adults don’t really believe a foal talking about strange bugponies in the Everfree Forest. Although, apparently they did believe the ‘Everfree’ – part, as the four foals were immediately escorted home by the guards, where they got a proper chewing-out by their respective peers. However, the guard couldn’t just ignore such a report, so they sent a small group out to have a look.

They found the cave, but as one might expect, the infiltrators were long gone. Instead, their knowledge of the cave further confirmed that they were indeed inside the Everfree Forest without permission or an adult, which made their situation even worse.

*plonk*

“OWW!” Frosty whined, as a falling branch knocked him out of his musings.

“Ehehe… sorry.” Applebloom said sheepishly. “Ah jus’ thought that maybe we can get done faster, if ah jus’ buck them branches out of th’ trees…”

Frosty rubbed the sore spot on his head a few more times, before giving Applebloom a questioning look. “Ok, first off: while I’m glad that you’re trying to think of ways to get done with this faster, I doubt that there’s too much of a difference between magically plucking them and kicking them down. We can go for two trees at the same time like this, though, so that should save us some time. Secondly: when did you get so strong? Weren’t you still too weak to applebuck just recently?”

“Uhhh yes, but them branches are dead, so they jus’ break off when ya give ‘em a little nudge.” Applebloom said.

“Oh… nevermind then.”

Frosty rubbed his head one last time, before he got back onto his hooves and checked their progress. Within the past two hours of work, they managed to finish about one and a half rows of apple trees.

“Say, Frosty… D’ya think mah sis is really gonna make us do this for a whole month?” Applebloom asked a little nervously.

“I wouldn’t say that she meant that as a time limit... more like a rough estimate of the time this will take.” Frosty answered as he looked over to the hundreds upon hundreds of rows that were still to be inspected.

“Awwwww, why’re we getting punished anyways? We jus’ tried ta find out who was watchin’ us!” Applebloom whined.

“Well, to them it probably just looked like we were making up excuses for going into the Everfree. Four foals, three of which are known for causing trouble, aren’t really all that believable to most adults. A shame, really.” Frosty mused, slowly moving to the next tree. “Though I’ve got to say, being the oldest is all well and good, but why did I get an extra punishment?”

“What?!”

“Yep, as long as we’re not done, I can’t go learn spells with miss Twilight.” Frosty said, pulling a dead branch from the tree in front of him.

“Oh wow, sis really seems miffed lately. This mornin’, I jus’ asked her what th’ word ‘fuck’ meant an’ she jus’ told me t’ never use it again and asked me where ah heard it.” Applebloom recounted absent-mindedly, while kicking the tree she was standing beside.

Frosty stopped in his tracks and looked over to Applebloom with a twitching eye. “And, pray tell, what did you tell her?”

“Hmm? Oh, ah told ‘er that ah herd ya say that an’ ah was wonderin what it meant.” She said with an innocent smile. Really, if it wasn’t for that smile, she would’ve had his forehoof come flying for her cheek. However, like that, it was merely bound for Frosty’s own forehead.

“Ugh… let’s just drop this and get on working. The faster we work, the sooner we will get this over with…”

“… And when you’re done with that, you come down and help me in the boutique!” Rarity commanded, as she and Sweetie Belle were standing in the basement, staring at all the dresses that Rarity had made and which had either come out of fashion or were simply not in season.

“But Rarity, I… why do I have to clean up the basement if you never go down here anyways? Can’t I just—“

“AH! Just because I rarely come in here doesn’t mean we can’t get this place a little cleaned up and since you have been a bad filly, I suppose this is a good way to punish you and get a few things done.” Rarity interrupted her sister, before turning around and trotting to the door. “And remember: I want them sorted by colour and season!”

The door closed, leaving Sweetie Belle alone. She stared after her sister for a moment, before sighing dejectedly and getting to work.

“I can’t believe you went into the Everfree! Not only that, but you lied to the guard about it! You’re grounded, young filly! And don’t even think about sneaking off again! This time, we will make sure to hide the keys to your door!” Aunt Lofty yelled, shutting the door on her, before Scootaloo could even bring a word in. She heard the key being turned from the other side, before both of her aunts walked away.

When she was alone, she sighed for a moment. Really, her aunts were nice and all, but they sometimes were worse than those old hags at the retirement home. Did they really think that just because her wings didn’t work, she couldn’t just climb out of the window?

She silently slid the window open and climbed out, before she stepped over the roof and slid down the gutter with practiced ease. She then looked around, ensuring herself that her aunts hadn’t laid an elaborate trap of some kind, before she sprinted off. Her target: the Everfree. After all, it couldn’t be that all those strange Bugponies just vanished, right? Well, as it seemed, they actually could, because when she reached the cave again, she didn’t find any clue to the presence of them, apart from the bridge, which was still destroyed.

Scootaloo walked through the caves for what felt like hours, trying to find a trace of the Bugponies, but coming out empty. Even after she had searched every corner of the cave twice, she didn’t find any—

“Wait… where am I?” Scootaloo asked aloud, as she realized that she didn’t know the inner layout of the cave. “Ehehehe, now don’t panic Scootaloo, eh, you can just… just trace back where you came from! Yeah, just… just turn around and… and go back, yeah.” She encouraged herself, turning around and taking the exact same path back, she used to get inside… at least as far as she could remember.

However, she came into more and more rooms that she didn’t recognize. Yet, she pushed on, hoping to find a way out, despite the odds.

Left, right, left, left again, one straight and another. By now, she was just randomly going wherever she thought was a good way to go. Ultimately, however, this only led to her becoming more and more lost, until…

“Oh no…” Scootaloo whined as she hit a dead-end. “Why… why did I have to get lost? Why did I even come back here? Why didn’t I just stay home?” She cried to herself, sniffling about while she leaned her forehead against the wall. “No! Frosty wouldn’t give up, so I won’t either! I’m sure I can—AAAAH!!”

Scootaloo turned around and was about to get moving again, when she suddenly screamed and jumped all the way back to the wall, when she saw what – or rather who – stood in her way.

Her path was blocked by a pony-esque silhouette with a hat, similar to the one Frosty now wore. However, this one was clearly an adult. It looked down at her with a grin like it had just found a prey that it had been chasing for all eternity. Slowly, it closed the distance to Scootaloo, who in turn pressed herself against the wall, trying to get away.

The strange pony came closer and closer, until it, when it was close enough, leaned down to touch its forehead against hers, before speaking to her in a low baritone voice.

“Well, hello, little filly.~”

Author's Note

You may take bets on what's going to happen next